International Rep

During that era, the Broncos played at ANZ Stadium. Much harder to get to than Lang Park for fans and it was also an athletics oval so the spectator experience wasn't great relative to both the old and new Lang Park so that without question hurt our attendances during that period.

It's also worth noting Brisbane has almost a million additional residents in 2019 than it did in 1999 with a growth rate over that period of almost 40%. That probably puts the crowds in a bit more context too.

Spot on, like I am now I was living on the Gold Coast and everytime we went to a game at ANZ Stadium it was a shitfight to get there and get parking. The Broncos initially had to give away tickets to motivate the fanbase to make the transition to ANZ Stadium and for a while that worked, the atmosphere was great at near or full capacity but when it dropped down overtime oh boy it made it harder and harder as a fan to want to go there.

NRL Player

yes agreed; this time (1997-1998) represented the height of the Langer-Walters-Bennett triumvirate, they were inarguable the best club rugby league side on Earth for those 2 years, nearly unbeatable against any opposition...

however, they barely got above 20K fans through the gate for games and that included a few semi final games at home too. Brisbane fans voted with their feet those years, showing you cannot take their loyalty for granted regardless of what team you put out there.

Thankfully, nowadays we have great healthy crowds coming to see the team and i think its worth putting that into perspective; most clubs would kill to draw such crowds.

We just need to sort out some positions and players futures with us and the future is looking so bright..!

Pre 1997 the fan numbers were at least 40,000 fans, many times over 50. Wendell Sailor's debut match vs the lowly GC attracted 58,000 spectators. The SL war badly fractured the game in Brisbane and the crowd numbers dropped substantially. I remember attending a WCC game vs London and there were only 7000 of us there. A year later a GFQ vs Sydney City yielded only 26,000. A good crowd in today's market but terrible in 1998. The eventual move back to Lang Park helped a bit but it has never reached the heights of those great days in the early to mid 90's. Brisbane was a total RL city back then, it is nothing like that now.

NYC Player

Pre 1997 the fan numbers were at least 40,000 fans, many times over 50. Wendell Sailor's debut match vs the lowly GC attracted 58,000 spectators. The SL war badly fractured the game in Brisbane and the crowd numbers dropped substantially. I remember attending a WCC game vs London and there were only 7000 of us there. A year later a GFQ vs Sydney City yielded only 26,000. A good crowd in today's market but terrible in 1998. The eventual move back to Lang Park helped a bit but it has never reached the heights of those great days in the early to mid 90's. Brisbane was a total RL city back then, it is nothing like that now.

It was 3 Years where we had high attendence and 1993 was the highest.
Going by what happened in 2015 I would say sustained success could get us closer to 40k but once you get to that level your limited to the stadium size as we could have potential to get more then 50k fans on some games but are limited by the capacity of the stadium(for example Cowboys games, or top 4 games or Final hosting games).

QCup Player

My concern for this game is the Isaako/Staggs/Gillo/Turpin combo's. When we played the Eels a few weeks back, they opened us up at will on that side. Isaako for all his bad defensive decision making was often the only player within 20 to 30m of the sideline and had no choice but to rush in with the eels having a 2-3 man overlap.

I'd be inclined to try Glenn at right centre with Isaako and switch Staggs to the left. Gillo for all his experience doesn't seem to be talking enough with the 3 new players around him. Having Glenn and Gillo defending together 'should' stiffen that edge up a bunch, and from what I've seen, Glenn is a lot more vocal.

The standard changed during the Henjak/Hook era when a powerhouse club was reduced to mere mortals and mediocrity was accepted as a "the future is bright" slogan. Bennett returned and the club became instant contenders again despite him stating that it would take him five years to mop up the mess that Hook left behind.

Bennett has now moved on and now we are back to the stage where Hook left it in 2014. Run again by incompetents who are again staining the legendary status of the club and all with the same promise for a brighter future.

Many of today's diehard fans weren't around in the hearty days of the 90's and 2000's and have no idea of the standards set during those eras. The older diehards like myself are rare because many aren't near as passionate anymore or have ditched the game completely. That just leaves the younger modern fan who easily accept mediocrity in the hope that the future yields a dynasty. A dynasty may occur in the future but the current admin and coaching crew will be long gone.

There are eight teams that didn’t scrape in, be at least proud your team wasn’t one of them. I’m the first to admit they have a long way to go and making the finals this year is something I didn’t expect but is a big part of the journey. No, I don’t expect everybody to be on that train but what I suspect and hope for is the players are on it and if so I hope they are listening to me and with respect not you.

State of Origin Captain

Yep, exactly this. I used to drive out that way for work every day, and Granard and Kessels roads leading up to Garden City are probably close to the worst pieces of shit in the whole of South Brisbane.

NYC Player

I'm not looking to be negative and I do think making the Finals is far better than not. I just think that maybe this year more than most is a stark reminder of how the Top 8 Finals system satisfies TV ratings with extra games and appeases fans, but it definitely doesn't reflect well on the standard overall when teams can get there on 25 points.

Isaako Could work at 1 if they allow him to kick the ball, he is probably the strongest kicker in the league tbh(in terms of distance), he has the power to do 40/20s easily if he can be decently accurate.

If he had a a good general play kicking game (I'm not saying he doesn't) then I just don't understand why we haven't seen it even at training yet?

If he could bring that to the table I'd love to see him given a run at Fullback but at this stage there isn't any real evidence for that kicking game or playmaking ability and he's hardly our most devastating ball runner, and without either of those two things you really can't cut it as a Fullback in the modern game anymore.

International Rep

Considering the standard of this season in general scraping into the finals isn't something to be proud of and I have seen us far better performing in seasons where we have actually not made the finals.

QCup Player

The standard changed during the Henjak/Hook era when a powerhouse club was reduced to mere mortals and mediocrity was accepted as a "the future is bright" slogan. Bennett returned and the club became instant contenders again despite him stating that it would take him five years to mop up the mess that Hook left behind.

Bennett has now moved on and now we are back to the stage where Hook left it in 2014. Run again by incompetents who are again staining the legendary status of the club and all with the same promise for a brighter future.

Many of today's diehard fans weren't around in the hearty days of the 90's and 2000's and have no idea of the standards set during those eras. The older diehards like myself are rare because many aren't near as passionate anymore or have ditched the game completely. That just leaves the younger modern fan who easily accept mediocrity in the hope that the future yields a dynasty. A dynasty may occur in the future but the current admin and coaching crew will be long gone.

Well said. I've been a Broncos supporter since the early 90's and I grew up in Sydney. I remember the days when every team and their fans hated us because we were simply way too good. I remember the days of excellence and the highest possible standards. Barely making the 8 back then would of been an absolute disaster. Today? It's accepted as successful.

I will never buy into that and in my opinion that is what is killing the club. I have no doubt Seibs and the organisation want to win and succeed but part of our winning culture has eroded because standards have dropped. We have excuses. "Oh, it's a young team, we are building, wait a few more years and we'll be great!" - there are no guarantees. We need to be successful now and also plan for the future. Why are the Roosters and Melbourne so good at this but we aren't? It's not that it's impossible it's because the people at the Broncos haven't got "it", whatever "it" is which is excellence, extremely high standards and a take no shit mentality.

International Captain

There are eight teams that didn’t scrape in, be at least proud your team wasn’t one of them. I’m the first to admit they have a long way to go and making the finals this year is something I didn’t expect but is a big part of the journey. No, I don’t expect everybody to be on that train but what I suspect and hope for is the players are on it and if so I hope they are listening to me and with respect not you.

NRL Player

If he had a a good general play kicking game (I'm not saying he doesn't) then I just don't understand why we haven't seen it even at training yet?

If he could bring that to the table I'd love to see him given a run at Fullback but at this stage there isn't any real evidence for that kicking game or playmaking ability and he's hardly our most devastating ball runner, and without either of those two things you really can't cut it as a Fullback in the modern game anymore.

He has been called on to kick for touch on penalties and he looks nervous af.

It's very odd, because natural strikers of the ball (Norman, Moses, Reynolds, etc.) are usually very adept at kicking long and accurately with nice weight on the kicks.

Isaako clearly strikes the ball well, but doesn't necessarily have the accuracy or feel on his kicks.

Even his kick offs... he can make them very difficult for the opposition to catch, but is still a risk of kicking it dead. Compared to someone like Fieldt who seems to have better control on his kicks.